RUN TO EARTH.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16538, 23 September 1921, Page 7

RUN TO EARTH.

FUGITIVE SHOOTS HIMSELF. SENSATION AT DROMORE. "William Henry Chapman, the prisoner who escaped from a north-bound express on Tuesday, September 13, shot himself in the chest late last night at a country house at Dromore as the police entered the house to arrest him. He was removed to the County Hospital, where he lies In a critical condition . STRANGE DASH FOR LIBERTY. Th© extraordinary feature about Chapman’s escape was the fact that he was only serving a sentence of six months’ imprisonment, imposed at Dunedin for theft. In the circumstances, for an old man of 51 to take the risk of a leap from tho express appeared to bo quite out of proportion to the alternative of six months’ imprisonment at Paparua Prison. Chapman asked leave to go to the lavatory on a corridor car. The constable who was escorting him stood aside to let some ladies pass, and Chapman, finding himself separated from his escort, bolted from tho train as it was standing near the Ashburton cemetery. POLICE SURROUND HOUSE. Chapman’s arrest at Dromore was the end of a long chase. Senior-Sergeant Ryan, who telephoned particulars of the arrest to Superintendent Hendrey this morning, heard that Chapman was in tho house of Mr Cyril Guthrie at Dromore, six miles from Ashburton. Ho sent four constables out, and they surrounded the house at 11.35 p.m. Constable Dunn knocked at the back doer, and was admitted after about ten minutes. “Where is Chapman ?*’ said the constable. Mr Guthrie led the way to the front of the house. “In here,” he said, as ho stood aside to let the constable enter the bedroom. As the constable tried the locked door a muffled shot was heard. Bursting into the room, he found Chapman in bed iff a state of collapse,- with a pea-rifle under the bedclothes. Chapman had fired a soft-nosed bullet into his chest two inches above the heart. Dr Mullin was summoned with the ambulance from Ashburton, and Chapman wets conveyed to the County Hon pital, where it was found that his injury was not likely to prove fatal. STRANGE CLUE TO HUNT. An affliction of the eye led to a very hot chase after Chapman a few days ago. His left eyelid drops involuntarily. giving the suggestion that lie is winking. A little girl, going to school near Ashburton, saw a stranger in a plantation near the road, and on going home told her mother that the man had winked at her. The mother, with commendable foresight, rang up 4 the police, and they at once motored out to th© plantation, where they found that they had missed their man by minutes. SYMPATHY FOR PRISONER. The extraordinary part of Chapman’s story is that lie went from farm house to farm house in the Ashburton and Methven districts, making no secret of the fact that he was an escaped prisoner, but stating that he was not guilty of the charge on which he had been sentenced. His appeals for shelter and food appear to have been sympathetically received, but latterly the countryside became uneasy, and it was “ on information received ” that the police visited Dromore last night, after they had missed Chapman by a hair’s breadth on several occasions.